rsync Backup Patterns¶

rsync is the tool for moving files on Linux. Fast, resumable, bandwidth-efficient — it only transfers what changed. For local and remote backups, it's what I reach for first.

The Short Answer¶

# Sync source to destination (local)
rsync -av /source/ /destination/

# Sync to remote server
rsync -avz /source/ user@server:/destination/

# Dry run first — see what would change
rsync -avnP /source/ /destination/

Core Flags¶

Flag	What it does
`-a`	Archive mode: preserves permissions, timestamps, symlinks, owner/group. Use this almost always.
`-v`	Verbose output — shows files being transferred.
`-z`	Compress during transfer. Useful over slow connections, overhead on fast LAN.
`-P`	Progress + partial transfers (resumes interrupted transfers).
`-n`	Dry run — shows what would happen without doing it.
`--delete`	Removes files from destination that no longer exist in source. Makes it a true mirror.
`--exclude`	Exclude patterns.
`--bwlimit`	Limit bandwidth in KB/s.

Local Backup¶

# Basic sync
rsync -av /home/major/ /backup/home/

# Mirror — destination matches source exactly (deletes removed files)
rsync -av --delete /home/major/ /backup/home/

# Exclude directories
rsync -av --exclude='.cache' --exclude='Downloads' /home/major/ /backup/home/

# Multiple excludes from a file
rsync -av --exclude-from=exclude.txt /home/major/ /backup/home/

The trailing slash matters: - /source/ — sync the contents of source into destination - /source — sync the source directory itself into destination (creates /destination/source/)

Almost always want the trailing slash on the source.

Remote Backup¶

# Local → remote
rsync -avz /home/major/ user@server:/backup/major/

# Remote → local (pull backup)
rsync -avz user@server:/var/data/ /local/backup/data/

# Specify SSH port or key
rsync -avz -e "ssh -p 2222 -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519" /source/ user@server:/dest/

Incremental Backups with Hard Links¶

The --link-dest pattern creates space-efficient incremental backups. Each backup looks like a full copy but only stores changed files — unchanged files are hard links to previous versions.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

BACKUP_DIR="/backup"
SOURCE="/home/major"
DATE="$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
LATEST="${BACKUP_DIR}/latest"
DEST="${BACKUP_DIR}/${DATE}"

rsync -av --delete \
    --link-dest="$LATEST" \
    "$SOURCE/" \
    "$DEST/"

# Update the 'latest' symlink
rm -f "$LATEST"
ln -s "$DEST" "$LATEST"

Each dated directory looks like a complete backup. Storage is only used for changed files. You can delete any dated directory without affecting others.

Backup Script with Logging¶

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

SOURCE="/home/major/"
DEST="/backup/home/"
LOG="/var/log/rsync-backup.log"

log() { echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $*" | tee -a "$LOG"; }

log "Backup started"

rsync -av --delete \
    --exclude='.cache' \
    --exclude='Downloads' \
    --log-file="$LOG" \
    "$SOURCE" "$DEST"

log "Backup complete"

Run via cron:

# Daily at 2am
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

Or systemd timer (preferred):

# /etc/systemd/system/rsync-backup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Daily rsync backup

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

sudo systemctl enable --now rsync-backup.timer

Gotchas & Notes¶

Test with --dry-run first. Especially when using --delete. See what would be removed before actually removing it.
--delete is destructive. It removes files from the destination that don't exist in the source. That's the point, but know what you're doing.
Large files and slow connections: Add -P for progress and partial transfer resume. An interrupted rsync picks up where it left off.
For network backups to untrusted locations, consider using rsync over SSH + encryption at rest. rsync over SSH handles transit encryption; storage encryption is separate.
rsync vs Restic: rsync is fast and simple. Restic gives you deduplication, encryption, and multiple backend support (S3, B2, etc.). For local backups, rsync. For offsite with encryption needs, Restic.